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some really good news and some bad news today.
first off my Solar system made 60 KW today.
i got the RO unit hooked into the water purification system and changed all the prefilters.
so now the mains water is filtered through 25 micron, 1 micron, AC, RO, and finally separate Kati Ani Di units.
tds out of the RO before DI is 14ppm.
for the first time ever coming out of the DI is Zero
yeah!
after 4 days of no top off water the system salinity was 0.0265 as best i could read the refractometer. i have started to add the new RO/DI water to the system it is about 50 gallons down.
after 4 days of no top off water addition and no Lanthanum Chloride use the PO4 tested at 0.0
i still can't quite believe it. i will retest again in the morning.
now i will start using ASW for a while and see if that makes a difference as well and keep changing the AC regularly.
the bad news is it may have come too late for the Elegance Coral.
the Elegance i have had for three years has totally separated from it's skeleton.
it's kind of like some of my teachers said about me when i was in school, great potential but not living up to the promise. maybe that will change now. how long might it take to see it turn around?
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Carl-
We are all stardust
Sun powered reef
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Last Login: 10/27/2009 5:26:01 PM
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| Sorry to here about your Elegance coral Carl, but it's nice to here your solar is doing what it's supposed to do now that the sun is out!
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update-
since i got the tds levels to zero out of the ro/di unit the PO4 has been the lowest ever. i haven't used lanthanum chloride in two weeks.
post RO tds is 5-6 and 0 after the DI, yahoo.
the tank water has mostly tested about 0.08. but then three days ago went down to 0.05ppm and today tested at 0.04ppm.
to think most of the problems may have been the crappy top off water all along... that is fantastic now.
i also added elbows to some of the closed loop returns to direct the water in a more cyclonic fashion.
i have added a little egg crate to give a little more shade to the tank. Steve's system has lower PAR values than my tank.
i don't think the PH is an issue.
i maintain alkalinity with daily additions of soda carbonate or sodium bicarbonate.
pH stays about 8.4-8.5 and is very stable.
dKH is about 11.
Calcium 420
Magnesium 1350
i haven't measured nitrates in a couple of weeks. it was about 10
i am making ASW right now to swap out up to 400 gallons over the next couple weeks. that may help dilute anything that came in the top off water that i don't want and isn't measurable.
that does present a bit of a dilemma though. if things get better should i start using the NSW again? i really don't want to stop as it is soo much cheaper. but if it isn't good of course i will spend the money for ASW mix. but how will i know?
i am still running the skimmer and it is producing a dark green/black skimmate.
how do you know you need a skimmer? just because it takes out stuff doesn't mean if your tank is set up right all that stuff wouldn't become food for something in the tank. something that would grow and breed and feed the corals and fish and give more diversity to the system. i am still going to turn it off one of these days.
if your skimmer was turned off what would you measure to tell you you had a problem that the skimmer had been preventing? does that make sense?
as far as the CO2 and pH i have lots of air movement in the house and garage. my skimmer has four air intakes and there is no easy way to plumb the air intake to the outside.
i haven't seen stuff start to grow again though i think things have stopped dying.
the elegance is still with me. i am target feeding it daily. the tentacles are short but it appears helathy, it still has good color.
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Carl-
We are all stardust
Sun powered reef
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That is one crazy system
--------------------------------------------------------------------"Corals,corals,corals-they are as fascinating as candle lights." phyto4life
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Last Login: 11/2/2009 12:30:05 AM
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sorry about your elegance coral
mr.reef24
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i got some new helpers to help with the grazing and aiptasia.
an interesting thing, since the phosphates have decreased in the last two weeks, i have gotten some new algae growth i never had before. there are 3-4 patches like this. the tangs don't seem interested in it.
this rock was long in the dark in the sump and when i put it in the DT a few weeks ago started getting a coating of algae. the tangs and urchins do like this algae. i stopped feeding any Nori as it seems they have enough algae in the tank to eat. they are constantly grazing on the rocks.
PO4 is still 0.04
0 tds from RO/DI unit
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Carl-
We are all stardust
Sun powered reef
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question for Chuck or anyone-
the snail shells are so clean, no coralline or other growths. is this how they look on the reef? why do you think they look like this?
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Carl-
We are all stardust
Sun powered reef
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Last Login: 10/11/2009 9:46:16 AM
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That new algae that appeared looks a lot like Bryopsis, which can be a real job to eradicate. If you can reach it, pluck it out before it gets out of hand. Foxface fish are known to eat it.
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Marc Levenson aka Melev
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i thought it looked like Byopsis too. my foxface doesn't seem interested in it. weird that it would only appear now that i got the PO4 levels much reduced. i wonder why that would be.
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Carl-
We are all stardust
Sun powered reef
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turning the flow has been good.
test coral
it even came with a commensal crab.
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Carl-
We are all stardust
Sun powered reef
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